Forever Friends

We're home and back to reality after our vacation last week at Deep Creek Lake in Maryland with Cammy and her amazing family. I find it very difficult to put in to words just what this vacation meant to me, but you know me, I'm gonna try.

Let me start with a little background. In 2006 Cammy & I both started blogging. Neither of us knew how these actions would change the course of our lives. I found her blog almost immediately and was hooked. We became blog buddies and in 2007 talked about going to Silver Bella together the following year. I'm not sure either of us thought we'd really do it but, lo and behold in 2008 we put on our big girl panties, boarded separate planes and met for the first time. A beautiful friendship was born.

It's hard to live 580 miles from your new best friend so we started planning a vacation together with our families. Risky move, right? We've all heard disaster stories about friends vacationing together but this week was perfect. I think we were all surprised at just how well it went. Despite a 4 year age difference, our girls are so much alike, both loving art and the great outdoors above all else. The teenagers became fast friends, were completely comfortable together and totally goofy. However, I think what surprised me the most was the hubbies. They became fast friends, sharing the same kind of sense of humor, the kind that goes mostly unappreciated by other people, occasionally including their wives.

It's hard to say what my favorite part of the vacation was, there was so much to choose from: picnics, antiquing, being on the boat, tubing, Jeff's monkey face, eating on the deck, drinking wine and laughing, realizing that Cammy and I are more alike than we ever realized as evidenced in the picture above that I borrowed from Cammy's blog. Yes, we are dressed like twins. No, we didn't do that on purpose and it happened over and over. Even our kids got us confused.

While all of that was amazing, my favorite moments were the little ones, preparing meals together, grocery shopping and especially sitting at the dining room table every morning and evening, making vacation journals, talking and just enjoying each others company. Cammy, you are the sister my heart has always longed for and I already miss you so much.

This was a week I'll never forget and my eternal gratitude goes out to the two most wonderful, generous, handsome husbands in the world. You guys clearly love your wives beyond measure or you wouldn't have agreed to this craziness.What a bonus that in the end, you each gained a new friend too. Thanks from the bottom of my heart Jim and Jeff. I can't wait to do it again.